Chinese women have been urged to establish a “new trend of family” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as their population ages and, for the first time, shrinks.
This call to action was issued by President Xi Jinping on Monday, following discussions with the new leadership of the All China Women’s Federation, an organization overseen by the CCP, with Xi emphasizing the impact of women on “family harmony, social harmony, national development, and national progress”.
The hard-left ruler underscored the need to “actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing” amid decreased marriage rates, which have contributed to a record decline in the birth rate. Issues including high childcare costs, career obstacles, sex discrimination, and reluctance to marry have been blamed for deterring young Chinese women from child-rearing.
From 1979 to 2015 swathes the CCP imposed a one-child policy on swathes of the population, with women facing extreme social and economic pressure to limit themselves to a single child, often backed up by forced abortions and sterilizations.
The communists increased the limit to two children in 2015 and three children in 2021, with limits scrapped altogether later the same year.
